English Town to fete 100th anniversary of 'It's A Long Way To Tipperary' - AUDIO

Rare photos of British troops in WWI
Photo by: pictureshistory.blogspot.com

Locals in the town of Stalybridge in Greater Manchester, the town where Jack Judge penned the famous tune “Its a long way to Tipperary” in a pub on January 30, 1912, plan to commemorate the anniversary of the event.

Judge, who wrote the tune in less than a day on a wager, already has a statue in the village to mark his achievement. “It's A Long Way To Tipperary” was adopted by British Troops as a marching song in World Wars I and II and would go on to become a famous anthem across the globe.

The celebrations will also go to further publicizing the English town as the birthplace of the song.

Joyce Raven, chairwoman of the Stalybridge Historical Society, hopes the celebrations will bring all locals together to celebrate the song, which has made the town known all over the world.

“It's a big thing because everyone knows it. It's a song that has gone through two world wars. It's very much knitted in with Stalybridge. We hope to have everyone standing around the square singing it," she said according to the Sunday Independent.

One other beneficiary of the famous song is Tipperary town itself, which has run a contest of its own - Tipperary Song of Peace Contest - for over ten years.

“The song is very much a part of the contest, it's why people want to enter it. We started the peace convention on the back of it as it is a war song, so we wanted to turn it around and do it for peace,” said Martin Quinn of the contest organizing committee.

Here's a recording of "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" from World War I: